Combined ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 7 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) Release Notes for Upgrades from Zurich to Australia

    This document consolidates the release notes for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) covering upgrades from the Zurich release family to Australia. It helps ServiceNow customers prepare for the upgrade by summarizing new features, changes, removals, deprecations, activation instructions, and other relevant information across these releases.

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    Key Features

    • Enterprise Modeling and Visualization Diagram Comparison: Customers can compare diagrams (business application hierarchy, business capability map, business process map) with previous versions to identify changes easily.
    • Refine Text Now Assist Skill: Enables elaboration or shortening of text in Description fields for business applications, capabilities, processes, value stream stages, and information objects. It also supports generating or refining Reasoning text in business application Planned Disposition sections.
    • Business Application Insights Skill: Provides concise, actionable insights on business applications without manual data review. Customers can configure source fields and define access criteria for this skill.
    • Security Enhancements: Access control lists (ACLs) are implemented to secure AI agents and agentic workflows, allowing executions under dynamic or AI user identities. Role restrictions have been added to several Now Assist skills.
    • Architectural Decision Records (ADR) Support: Users can generate summaries or extract specific information from ADR documents using the Now Assist menu field option.
    • Third-Party AI Model Providers: In addition to the Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini and AWS Claude are now available for generative AI skills and AI agents.

    Key Changes

    • Now Assist Usage Measurement: Transitioned from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model with usage resetting on the contract anniversary date, improving usage tracking accuracy.
    • Role Masking for Agentic Workflows: Role-based access controls are now required for agentic workflows and included AI agents, ensuring only authorized users can access these capabilities.
    • Default Activation of AI Skills: New customers have AI skills and agentic workflows turned on automatically upon installation. Existing customers upgrading from Zurich will have unconfigured skills activated by default, while previously configured but disabled features remain off.

    Activation and Security

    ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) Now Assist features are activated through the associated plugin. Customers must configure ACLs and role assignments to secure AI agents and workflows properly. This ensures compliant and controlled AI usage within the ServiceNow platform.

    Additional Notes

    • No features or functionalities were removed or deprecated between Zurich and Australia releases.
    • No updates were reported for browser, localization, accessibility, or additional requirements in this upgrade cycle.
    • The default theme Coral enhances user experience in portals, web, and mobile interfaces starting from Zurich Early Availability.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    When upgrading from Zurich to Australia, customers gain enhanced AI-assisted capabilities for enterprise architecture modeling, deeper insights into business applications, and improved security controls for AI-driven workflows. The activation of AI skills by default simplifies adoption while requiring attention to role-based access configurations. New generative AI options broaden flexibility in AI model usage. Customers should review pre- and post-upgrade tasks, especially around security setup and AI usage measurement changes, to ensure a smooth transition and compliance.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) from Zurich to Australia.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Zurich to Australia.

    Tip:
    If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

    Important information for upgrading ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) to Australia

    Before you upgrade to Australia, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Australia, new features were introduced for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA).

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Compare Enterprise Modeling and Visualization diagrams

    Learn the details of the changes in the Enterprise Modeling and Visualization diagrams by comparing a diagram with its previous version. You can compare business application hierarchy, business capability map, and business process map diagrams.

    Elaborate or shorten content in form fields
    Elaborate or shorten text in the Description field of the following records using the Refine text Now Assist skill:
    • Business application
    • Business capability
    • Business process
    • Value stream stages
    • Information object
    Also, generate, elaborate, or shorten text in the Reasoning field in the Planned Disposition section of the business application record.
    Business Application Insights skill configuration changes

    For the Business application insights Now Assist skill, you can view the business application source fields based on which the business application insights are generated. Also, you can determine the availability of the skill by defining a specific criteria in the Define access tab of the Business application insights skill.

    Role restrictions for ServiceNow Otto for EA skills
    Role restriction is added to the default roles associated with the following skills:
    • Diagram change analysis
    • ADR Doc Summarization and Actions
    • Business application insights
    • Refine text
    Business Application Insights skill
    Learn the details of business applications and gather concise and actionable insights on business applications from the summary that is generated by ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA). The business application insights help you to make informed decisions without manually reviewing large volumes of data.
    Implement access control lists for security in AI agents
    Enable security implementation to execute AI agents and agentic workflows through access control lists (ACLs) and user identities.

    ACLs provide you with the capability to run AI agents and agentic workflow executions either as a dynamic user or an AI user.

    To learn about ACLs for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) agents and skills, see Configure and Generate enterprise architecture diagram agentic workflow.

    Generate a summary of the Architectural Decision Records (ADR) document or get a particular information from the document
    On the Architectural Decision Records page, use the field option in the Now Assist menu to derive a particular information about the ADR content.
    New third-party AI model provider options available for all AI applications
    Google Gemini and AWS Claude are available for generative AI skills and AI agents, in addition to Now LLM Service and Azure OpenAI.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) features.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Zurich Patch 5
    Changes to Now Assist usage measurement
    Starting with Australia Early Access, AI usage measurement is transitioning from a 365-day look-back model to a 365-day burn-down model, with usage resetting at the contract anniversary date. For more information, refer to KB KB2704710: AI Usage - Overview & New Measurement Logic.
    Zurich Patch 4
    Role masking

    Agentic workflows and their AI agents use role masking to determine which users can access them. Ones installed with your applications have specific roles that come included with the application. If you select Users with specific roles for user access, you must configure the security controls to include these roles. For the instructions to change the security controls, see Define security controls for an agentic workflow.

    Some generative AI skills, AI agents, and agentic workflows are turned on by default
    The skills are automatically available to appropriate role users for the application, such as ITIL roles on incident forms or change forms. This change simply activates the skill and does not touch the roles that may be needed to use the skill. The new default behavior works as follows:
    • New customers: When you install an AI product, designated skills and agentic workflows are turned on automatically.
    • Existing customers who are upgrading (starting with Australia Early Access): Any previously unconfigured skill, agent, or agentic workflow is turned on automatically (the AI asset was never configured and turned on, then turned off again). Previously configured skills and agentic workflows that were turned on, then off, remain inactive.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Australia, some ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Australia, some ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA).

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Now Assist features are available with activation of the ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) plugin. For more information, see Install plugins for ServiceNow Otto.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA), such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Zurich

    Zurich Patch 5
    • Review changes to Now Assist usage measurement.
    Zurich Patch 4
    • All ServiceNow Otto for EA skills are activated by default.
    • Use the Diagram change analysis Now Assist skill to compare an Enterprise Modeling and Visualization diagram with its previous version and generate a summary of the differences.

    • Use the Refine text Now Assist skill to elaborate or shorten text in the Description field of the business application, business capability, business process, and information object records. Also, use this skill to generate, elaborate, or shorten text in the Reasoning field under the Planned Disposition section of the business application record.

    • Additional role configuration is required for agentic workflows and AI agents included with Now Assist applications.
    • Use the Business Application Insights Now Assist skill to generate insights into your business applications.
    • Implement security in Now Assist AI agents with access control lists (ACLs).
    • On the Architectural Decision Records page, use the field in the Architectural Decision Records menu to enter queries and derive the required information from the Architectural Decision Records (ADR) artifact content.
    Zurich Patch 1
    • Use the Business Application Insights Now Assist skill to generate insights into your business applications.
    • Implement security in Now Assist AI agents with access control lists (ACLs).
    • On the Architectural Decision Records page, use the field in the Architectural Decision Records menu to enter queries and derive the required information from the Architectural Decision Records (ADR) artifact content.
    Zurich Early Availability
    • Enhance your productivity by using the Now LLM Service or a supported third-party LLM with any ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) skill or AI agent.
    • Enhance your user experience with Coral that is used as the default theme for new portal, web, and mobile experiences.

    See ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) for more information.

    Australia

    No updates for this release.